Hearthstones
by Zoe Nightshade
Summary: Long ago, Hestia gave up her throne on Olympus for Dionysus. After Dionysus breaks a promise to her, she wants her throne back. Meanwhile, the gods on Mount Olympus fight about the sanctity of gay marriage and sacrality of female sexuality, and must find a compromise between tradition and modernity to restore Hestia's fire.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: Thank you for reading_ Hearthstones _. It's a complete rewrite and reconceptualization of a fic I started many years ago called_ Sour Grapes. _Call this a creative exercise - I have been trying to write more, and so it was only natural to return to where I began: the PJO Fandom._

 _Though the Percy Jackson series vividly describes Percy's life at Camp Half-Blood, we readers don't get to see what a normal camper's life is like outside of quests, battles, and prophecies. Our hero Ariadne is certainly not a normal demigod by any means, but in some ways her experience at Camp Half-Blood is._

 _Many social mores that existed in Ancient Greece differ from the world in which we live now. But in a lot of ways, we still see a lot of policing of female sexuality, homophobia, etc. In_ Percy's Greek Gods _, Rick Riordan revealed Dionysus to be the_ _patron god of all transgender and intersex individuals, due to him being forced to conceal his true gender in public during his childhood. In_ The Heroes of Olympus _series, Nico di Angelo was revealed to be gay._ _What better backdrop is there to explore the collisions of Ancient Greek mythology and relevant social issues?_

Hearthstones _is my quest to live out my sixth-grade fantasy - to go to Camp Half-Blood - and to discover how the Greek Gods I love would feel about the modern world, of course, with plenty of drama and action. I hope you'll join me._

Ω

Hestia pushed her way through the crowd as discreetly as a divinely beautiful woman could be in a loud New York City bar during Happy Hour. Music blared through the speakers in competition with the hockey game streaming on all of the TVs. Around her, couples kissed with awkward passion fueled by alcohol and coworkers bonded in slurred speech. Hestia squeezed toward the bar and locked eyes with the only sober man in the establishment. Although he had drunk more than anyone else in the bar, he savored his appletini with a clear mind. Miracle? Not quite. This was Dionysus, the king of them all. Hestia shoved a man chuckle-choking on a shot to the side and approached her nephew.

"Dionysus." Though she spoke softly, her passed above the background noise.

"Hestia." Dionysus reached to take her hand, which carried a small bundle.

"Let's go," she said. "Somewhere alone."

In an instant, the two gods appeared in a rooftop garden, the lucrative space of a New York City company. Below, horns honked and lights illuminated the city that never sleeps, but the garden was private and serene.

"After the war, I gave up my seat on Olympus." Hestia spoke humbly, yet maintained a straight-forward and direct tone. "I did it for peace among my family. But also, for you."

"The gesture has not been forgotten," Dionysus assured her. "I am forever indebted to you."

"Yes," Hestia nodded. She let in a deep breath, and unwrapped the bundle in her arms to reveal a sleeping baby. "Take her."

The god looked up at the virgin goddess of the hearth in surprise. "Is it - is she yours?"

Hestia shook her head. "No, no," she asserted. "Yes. But no - not mine." Dionysus took the baby in his arms, awkwardly holding it as one would cradle a stack of delicate China dishes. Hestia continued. "One of my maidens, Andromeia," she explained. "My virgin sisters of the hearth. They turned on one another after she fell pregnant."

Dionysus nodded. "What do you want me to do with her?"

"Take her. Find her a family until she is old enough for the camp."

"Is she a demigod?"

"No, but -"

"Hestia, that is impossible. She would not be allowed through the borders," Dionysus said.

"She is not a demigod, but she has an immortal parent - Andromeia - and her father is a demigod," Hestia countered.

"I'm afraid that isn't sufficient."

"Oh, but it is," Hestia insisted. "The child withstands nectar and ambrosia. She has enough divinely blood to equate with the child of a minor god."

"Well," Dionysus relented, "if she can withstand nectar and ambrosia, I suppose."

"Claim her." It was an order. "When she arrives at the camp, I want you to claim her."

Dionysus started to laugh, but then stifled his chuckle realizing Hestia was serious. "As my child? Is that even -"

"Claim her," Hestia repeated. "Just for a little while, until I can figure everything out." She turned away from Dionysus and leaned over the railing, looking down at the street dozens of floors below and out at the Hudson River. "My fire is suffering. My sisters took opposing sides - some thought Andromeia should be thrust from the hearth. Others called for her execution. And a few advocated forgiveness." She paused. "As I did. My fire is suffering, Dionysus. It has suffered for years, but not like this. My hearth is in danger. Family is in danger, Dionysus. Claim her. And protect her as if she were your own."

The god let out a sigh, and a breeze passed over the rooftop garden, point his gaze toward the Empire State Building, above which Olympus sat. The child in his arms was so small next to the glory of his Olympus throne. He finally nodded. "Alright."

"The name," he said. "What is it?"

"'Ariadne,'" Hestia said. "May she lead us all out of this labyrinth." Dionysus covered the baby's eyes as Hestia glowed and disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

The night before the trip, Pat printed out Ariadne's boarding pass – Southwest Airlines, Burbank to LaGuardia, where she would be picked up and brought to the camp on Long Island. For as long as Ariadne could remember, Pat had told her stories about the Greek gods, that she was a very special girl, that one day she would spend summers at a camp for kids like her. It was a cherished, father-daughter bonding ritual, and as Ariadne grew older and story time grew less frequent, tales of the gods began to blend in with stories her other father Lorenzo told her – about Santa Clause and his magical reindeer and the Tooth Fairy with a castle in the sky made of Ariadne's baby teeth.

Pat and Lorenzo had told Ariadne the story of their family so many times she knew it by heart. After moving in together, her dads wanted to adopt a child, but had trouble navigating the adoption system since the state of California did not allow them to marry. Then one day, an old man who had known Pat's grandfather presented them with Ariadne. He claimed that one of her parents was an Olympian god. Pat was intrigued, and believed the man's claims based off stories he'd heard from his grandfather as a boy. Lorenzo was incredulous until the man grew grapevines around their house before their very eyes. Ariadne loved hearing that story. When she was small, Pat and Lorenzo would tell it to her while picking grapes from the vines that still enveloped the house.

Pat and Lorenzo offered to help Ariadne pack, but she shooed them away. They assumed that she was anxious about being away from home and persisted. But the truth was, at twelve, Ariadne didn't want her dads poking through all of her belongings.

She packed the essentials – enough clothes for a week and a half to two weeks, toiletries, and the stationery and stamps set Lorenzo had given her to write home. Other than that, not much direction had been provided. Neither Pat nor Lorenzo had been to the camp – though Pat claimed his grandfather lived there as a boy – and to Ariadne, the entire ordeal seemed quite surreal.

Ω

The flight was long, and Ariadne accidentally checked the bag with her iPod. She was grateful when the plane touched down in New York. When she got to the domestic arrivals concourse, she was greeted by a huge man who held a sign: "Welcome, Ariadne Farragut-Garcia!" The man, Ariadne realized, must be Argus. Beside him, a boy who appeared to be a few years younger than Ariadne paced back and forth.

"Are we going yet?" he asked impatiently. Argus grunted, and with Ariadne and the boy's bags in tow, headed toward the parking garage.

After they had made it through the New York City traffic, the ride was beautiful – grassy fields, rocky beaches. It was a foggy June day, but the gloom made the surrounding landscape all the more picturesque.

Ariadne pulled a pack of gum out of her carryon backpack, took a piece, and offered one to the boy.

"Thanks," he said. Then, "Ariadne, right? I don't remember you from last summer."

"It's my first summer," Ariadne explained.

"Oh," the boy said. "I'm Connor, son of Apollo."

Ariadne's eyebrows raised. "You mean the Greek god?" she asked.

"Wow, you really are new," Connor remarked. "Yeah, you know what Camp Half-Blood is, right? All of us have one godly parent and one mortal parent."

Slowly, Ariadne nodded. "Yeah, I guess. I heard that, I just never really imagined…" Her voice trailed off. Connor eyed her carefully.

"I'm guessing you don't know your godly parent then?" he said.

"No."

"Well then do you have a mom or a dad?" Connor attempted to blow a bubble with his gum, and it flattened around his lips.

"What?"

"Like who do you live with?"

"Oh," Ariadne said. "My dads."

Connor looked confused, but then nodded in realization. "So then your godly parent must be your mom," he concluded. Then he smirked. "That must have been interesting for your other dad."

"No, no." Ariadne shook her head. "I was adopted. I don't know who my biological parents were. My dads said that some old man gave me to them when I was a baby."

"Hmm." Connor scribbled a picture into the condensation on the van window. "I guess it's hard to know then. I suppose that man could have been your dad, but gods aren't usually into old people. Or gay people."

Ariadne smiled. Eager to change the subject, she said, "What grade are you in?"

Connor scowled. "I just finished fourth, but I have to do fourth again next year. This year, I got kicked out too early in the year."

"Oh," Ariadne said. "I'm sorry." After a pause, she offered, "I'm going into seventh." She wondered why she was only now old enough to go to camp, when Connor was at least a second-year camper and clearly much younger.

"Bet you got kicked out of a lot of schools," Connor said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Ariadne was taken aback. "No, never." She quickly added, "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Connor cocked his head. "You never got kicked out of school?" Ariadne shook her head. Connor looked pensive. "But you do have ADHD and dyslexia." Again, Ariadne shook her head, perplexed by Connor's specificity.

"Well that's odd," said Connor.

For a half an hour or so, they were silent. Ariadne reached into the trunk and pulled her iPod out. In the distance, she saw a sunny valley amidst the June gloom of its surroundings. Connor pointed to it, and Ariadne removed her earbuds.

"There," he said. "There it is. That's Camp Half-Blood."

Ω

As soon as they entered the valley, the world around them had grown bright and the gloom disappeared. While Argus led Ariadne and Connor toward a large, sky-blue house apparently called "The Big House," Connor rattled off last-minute facts.

"The weather's always sunny at Camp Half-Blood," he explained. "There's weather control. Oh, and Chiron is the head of camp. Actually, technically it's Mr. D, but he hates us all. He got in trouble with Zeus and has to be here as punishment." Connor took his gum out of his mouth, wrapped it up, and placed it in his pocket. "He's always a jerk, but you need to be nice. He's a god."

"A god runs Camp Half-Blood," Ariadne said in disbelief.

"Yeah, Dionysus."

Chiron greeted them at the door. He was a middle-aged man who sat in a wheelchair, but somehow felt taller when he spoke. Connor was sent to Cabin 7, the Apollo Cabin, to unpack, and Chiron asked Argus to head down to the infirmary.

"I spoke to your father last night, Ariadne," Chiron said as soon as they were alone. "Patroclus cares for you a great deal." Ariadne was surprised to hear her father's full name.

"I don't know who my godly parent is," she told him.

Chiron smiled. "Most campers do not when they first arrive. We'll put you in Cabin 11 – Hermes's cabin – for the time being."

"When will I find out?" asked Ariadne. "Who my godly parent is, I mean."

"In good time, child." Chiron wheeled himself over to a dining room, and Ariadne followed. "For now, let's find you some food. You must be hungry after your flight. I'm afraid dinner has already passed."

Ariadne looked up at an old-fashioned cuckoo clock on the wall. It was after eight o'clock despite how bright it was outside. This, Ariadne resolved, was no normal summer camp.

"Indeed, it is not," Chiron said as if he had read her thoughts. "Camp Half-Blood exists to train demigods – heroes like yourself."

"Train for what?"

"To protect yourselves. Heroes like yourself wield great power, and there are beings out there who seek to destroy you."

Before Ariadne could respond, a tall man sporting a full leopard-print suit stepped out of the stairwell.

"Mr. D," said Chiron. "This is our new camper, Ariadne."

Ariadne braced herself for the nastiness Connor warned her about, but Dionysus said, "'Ariadne,' what a lovely name." Chiron looked dumbfounded. But the god continued. "My wife's name is 'Ariadne," did you know that?" He reached out for Ariadne's right hand, and shook it. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

Mr. D. turned to Chiron, who was still visibly taken aback. "Has she had her dinner? Oh, no mind." He waved his hands, and a silver tray appeared in front of Ariadne on the dining table holding several fine cheeses and crackers. She jumped as a small bunch of grapes grew out of thin air.

"Mr. D," Chiron warned. "Remember what happened last time."

Dionysus rolled his eyes, and the grapes disappeared. "I'm not supposed to produce wine grapes," he explained to Ariadne. He muttered, "Part of my punishment."

Ariadne thanked him for the meal, and ate quickly as Chiron went through her "welcome" folder, which held maps, schedules, and pages of camp rules written in both English and Ancient Greek. Once she was finished, Chiron closed the folder.

"That's enough of that for now," he said. "You must be tired. I'll bring you to Cabin 11 so you can get some sleep."

Ariadne followed Chiron out the front door of the Big House, where he seemed to grow larger – no, outward, as a full horse's body sprang out of his wheelchair and collapsed into thin air. There, Chiron stood, towering above her, his torso and upward resting comfortably where the horse's neck should have been.

"Much better," Chiron said. He motioned toward a group of large houses arranged in a circle across a river in the distance. "Onward!"


	3. Chapter 3

Ariadne awoke to the sound of a conch. When she sat up, nearly everyone in her cabin was already awake, quietly entertaining themselves with cards, books, or magazines. At the sound of the wake-up call, everyone in the Hermes Cabin immediately scrambled to get dressed; something Ariadne didn't need to worry about because she had slept in her clothes. The bathrooms had been crowded, and and she'd been too tired to wait.

"We need to try to be there before the breakfast horn blows," a girl said as she struggled to pull up her fly. "For breakfast, we all line up for a buffet by cabin, first come first serve, and by the time the last people are up, all the good food is gone." Pants on, she stuffed a few all items in a leather pouch. "We're always last."

Ariadne nodded and went outside to sit on the porch until everyone else was ready. As she sat on the plain, chipped bench, the Athena, Demeter, Aphrodite cabins exited their cabins and headed towards the dining pavilion, a few of the Aphrodite girls fussing with their make up as they walked. Some of the Hephaestus kids were sitting on their porch. A few minutes later, the rest of the Hephaestus Cabin joined them. Some of the older kids had gotten up early to work in the forge. What was taking the rest of Hermes so long?

A bunch of campers so large they looked scary in their pajamas sulked out of the Ares Cabin, and as the conch horn sounded – the breakfast horn, the Apollo Cabin, the second largest, came out of Cabin 7 arguing as they made their way to the dining pavilion. Connor, the boy Ariadne had met the day before on the van, waved, and Ariadne waved back.

Finally, person by person, the entire Hermes Cabin made its way onto the porch.

"Save the best for last," one girl remarked.

"What took you all so long?" Ariadne asked, careful not to sound accusatory; she didn't want to be that person on her first day.

"There are a lot of us. Believe me, after a couple weeks you'll understand."

The cabins formed separate lines in front of the pavilion from left to right so the Hermes Cabin, being last, was furthest right and since they lined up by seniority, Ariadne was dead last; the last person in the entire camp to receive breakfast.

The Athena, Demeter, and Aphrodite cabins were generally courteous, but as the lines grew shorter, the quantity of food became smaller and smaller. Ariadne almost cringed when she saw the Ares Cabin pile several meals of food on their plates. As her own cabin took their food, she held back the urge to mutter, "Please leave a few pieces of bacon for the people behind you," or "Do you really need that much food?" Ariadne ended up with a few crumbs of scrambled eggs, a tiny orange slice, and grape nuts because the granola was gone. She picked up the last goblet from the end of the table, and sat down with the rest of her cabin.

"Milk, please," she said. Her goblet immediately filled up with 2% milk which she poured into her bowl of grape nuts.

"You don't need to say 'please' to the cup, Ariadne," Wilson said. She chuckled in spite of herself.

"Right, right," she said.

Then she cleaned the remaining milk out her cup and said, "Orange juice," and the goblet filled with orange juice. Why couldn't the plates be like the cups? Then she could say, "Toast with butter," and it would appear.

After breakfast was chores. All campers were assigned some sort of chore to do around the camp and they had about a half an hour to do it, more if they ate breakfast quickly. Cabin clean-up was supposed to be done in the time between the wake-up conch horn and the breakfast conch horn, but since the Hermes Cabin took the longest getting dressed, they simply didn't have time to clean up like the other cabins did. Fortunately, as Cabin 11, the Hermes Cabin would be one of the last cabins to be checked for cabin inspection, but the inspectors were senior campers from the Aphrodite Cabin who were known for being especially picky. Also, since Cabins 1, 2, 3, and 8 didn't have any campers residing in them, they wouldn't be checked, leaving the Hermes Cabin less time to do their usual stuff-everything-under-bunks-as-fast-as-possible clean up before their cabin was checked. And, after that, they still needed to do whichever chores they were assigned that day with the remaining time before first period.

Some older campers said that the system changed every year, but that year, each camper was given a list of activities and how many times they had to do them by the end of that week. For instance, everyone had to take sword fighting at the arena at least three times, but some people had it more depending on their godly parent. Chiron wouldn't send a daughter of Aphrodite to work in the forges with the Hephaestus kids just as he wouldn't send a son or daughter of Ares to Craft Making with the Aphrodite Cabin. However, there were basic survival classes such as sword fighting, archery, monster maiming, and a few other classes that everyone had to take no matter who their godly parent was.

Since Ariadne didn't know who her godly parent was, she was given the schedule for an undetermined camper. She needed to take all the basic classes a few times a week - three or four times depending on the class - and some other not-so-important survival classes once or twice. That left her with extra free periods, half of which were electives. If she ever strongly disliked a class, she could go to the Big House and work it out with Chiron, but she was assured that she would never be permitted to change a basic class, and if she wanted to change a class that was only a little bit useful like canoeing, she would need to excel in it first.

There were six activity periods every day, so some campers would get all of their least favorite activities done early in the week. Terri Williams from the Demeter Cabin hated archery, so she went to archery four times on the first day of classes, Monday, and had all of her archery classes done for that week.

For her first activity, Ariadne chose the arena. According to all of the campers in her cabin, sword fighting was one of the most important skills for a half-blood to know.

When she arrived, there were only a few kids sitting on the benches on the side of the arena, none of whom she recognized.

An older boy ran in from the side. He had a rawhide basket thrown over his shoulder that seemed to be filled with swords.

"Sorry I'm late," he said. "Completely forgot I was teaching today."

"Hey, Jerry," some of the other kids said.

"Hey," he said. "Alright, first let's see all your papers."

He went around, stamping everyone's schedules with a special stamp next to the word, "Sword Fighting" to prove that they had been done one sword fighting class. When he got to Ariadne, he looked up at her and smiled.

"You're new," he said. She nodded.

"I just got here yesterday."

"Daughter of-"

"I don't know yet," she said pointing to the heading of her paper which said, "Undetermined Camper Schedule."

"I'm Jerry," he said holding out his hand. "Son of Athena."

Ariadne shook his hand, only then noticing his stormy, grey, eyes.

"Alright, come on, let's get started," Jerry said as he pulled out the swords and started handing them out.

"I've got my own," the boy next to Ariadne said when Jerry held one out to him.

After handing out swords, Jerry pulled out his own sword, a long, golden colored, beauty.

"Celestial bronze," he said when he saw Ariadne admiring it. "Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, and cooled in the river Lethe."

"Awesome," she said. Although she had never been a big fan of weapons, now that she was going to need one, she realized she'd prefer a nice one.

"Thanks. Gift from my mom."

"The goddess, Athena?"

"Yeah," Jerry said. "Okay, let's get started. You're first, Ariadne."

She looked at his celestial bronze knife, both more precious and beautiful than gold, and then at the camp's bulky, steel sword that was starting to rust. Oh well.

"So what do I do?" she asked.

Ariadne mimicked his stance, and the way he held his sword out at her although frightened even though she knew he would never actually hurt her.

"Okay," Jerry told her. "I'm going to move my sword at you in slow motion since it's your first time, trying to stab you, and you block my sword with yours, got it?"

"Yeah," she said.

Jerry put his sword forward to stab her in slow motion. Ariadne took her sword and blocked it from the right side. Then, he aimed his sword at her shoulder, and she hit it out of the way with hers.

"Nice," he said. "Now, I'm going to go a tad bit faster, okay?"

Ariadne nodded.

Jerry bulldozed his sword towards her chest. Just in time, she hit it as hard as she could with her sword, but he then aimed it at her left arm. She blocked that attack too, only to find another part of her body in peril. Soon, she found herself defending furiously, basically flailing her sword in the air trying to knock Jerry's out of the way. It was clear to her that in battle, this wouldn't work. She would need to learn real strokes. This way tired her out too easily for it to help her survive. Finally, Jerry put his sword down.

"Pretty good for your first time, Ariadne," Jerry said. "Next time, I'll show you some strategies so you won't just be flailing your sword around. Really, it may seem like the flailing works better at first, but once you know what you're doing, you'll find the strategies do work, and that way, you have more control over your weapon. Okay, Thomas, you're turn."

Ariadne walked to the side of the arena to sit with the others.

After sword fighting, Ariadne went to archery, another basic class. Each camper had only two turns to fight since Jerry went off for a while on a long lecture about why Athena was better than Ares. It was mostly on how Ares has no sense of the strategic art of war. He eventually stopped his lecture because of some thunder from up above when the lecture started to highlight more sensitive faults of particular gods.

In her second turn, Jerry showed her different moves. He also helped her go from banging her sword against his as hard as she could to doing soft, but firm, strong, strokes when she blocked, and he showed her how to slowly find ways to stab. He told her to come the next day second period which was the next time he would be teaching sword fighting. Although Jerry said that she had done unusually well for a first timer, Ariadne had half been expecting to be a master at it her first time. Since sword fighting was said to be one of the most important skills for a half-blood to have, she was disappointed that she didn't have the ability to fight off a monster by herself, meaning that if she left camp, she would most likely not survive unlike some of the campers who had been there longer.

Maybe archery would be the class that she would come into and ace. Ariadne wanted one thing that she could master without having to go though the time being not so good at the beginning.

In archery, however, at first, she could barely shoot an arrow, and when she did, no matter how hard she tried, it would go way left or way right. It was a bit frustrating at first, but finally hitting the black part of the target lifted her spirits. By the end of the class, she had hit not only the black, but the blue twice, the red once, and had her arrow bounce off the middle of the target, the yellow.

After second period, from 11:00 to 1:00, a cabin or a small group of campers were chosen to set up an optional, semi-tame activity. Campers would eat around that area, and if they chose to, they could go participate. Chiron would post what the activity was, who was doing it, and where to go, in the morning after breakfast on the door of the Big House, but since Ariadne didn't know that she was supposed to check, a girl from her archery class told her. That day, a few girls from the Demeter and Aphrodite Cabins were chosen to set up an activity. All girls were master pegasus riders, so they set up pegasus riding lessons by the stable which was a bit of a problem since no one was too happy about eating in the presence of a strong horse poop aroma.

Celeste and Daniel Marion, twins from Hermes, were having fun making a fortune selling clothespins to campers who couldn't stand the smell.

That day's lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apparently made in a rush. Each camper was given two pieces of bread with a small ball of peanut butter and jelly placed in the middle. Couldn't anyone at least spread the stuff out?

Out of the corner of her eye, Ariadne saw the kids in the Aphrodite not in charge of lunch time activity running to the shower house.

"Oh," she said to Georgia, a determined girl in her cabin. "Is it shower time?"

"Well yeah," Georgia said. "But not our turn yet. It's in order of how clean our cabin was. We're last."

"Oh well."

"I hope we have enough time to shower."

"Shouldn't we?" Ariadne asked. "I mean, two hours."

"Some people take a long time, or sometimes Chiron forgets to call out what cabin can go and shower next. Either way, the hot water's always gone."

Ariadne, as a new camper, didn't have a blanket to set up her picnic, so she joined Georgia, who just happened to be good friends with Jerry, the sword fighting instructor. When he came over to them, at first, Ariadne thought it would be like meeting a school teacher at the mall, but it wasn't. After all, Jerry was a camper, just like her.

After shoving down her sandwich, Ariadne talked to Jerry and Georgia, who gave her a camp store credit to go and buy a few clothespins from Celeste and Daniel, watched the campers learning how to ride pegasi but didn't join in because the line was too long, and finally, had a minute and a half to take a freezing cold shower with only a dab of borrowed shampoo and body wash.

As lunch drew to a close, Ariadne agreed take a break from traditional hero training and go to a more relaxing class, Arts 'n' Crafts, with Georgia and Jerry for third period. But as she entered the nook in the forest where a nymph was showing the early campers how to make a Turk's head, everyone looked at her, froze in shock for a moment, and then smiled.

Jerry patted her on the back and said, "Congrats, Ariadne! You've been claimed."

"Claimed?"

"Dionysus has claimed you as his daughter," Georgia explained. "You aren't undetermined anymore."

Ariadne looked above her head and was disappointed to see that she had missed Dionysus's holographic image. Campers she had never met patted her on the back. Even a few undetermined campers from Cabin 11 seemed genuinely congratulatory despite their obvious jealousy.

As Ariadne made her way to the crafts table, she let the idea sit as if that would make it more real. "Mr. D is my father," she said to herself. She was unsure about how she felt, and whether she was offended by the rest of camp's nearly unanimous hatred of him, her father. All Ariadne was sure about was that she missed her dads. Once she moved into Cabin 12, she decided, she would write them a letter.


End file.
